Originally Posted by
Psimet2001
I used to laugh at my power files after crits. My ftp was easily in the 240-260 range but if I took a peak 20 minutes average from a race then it would have been 300+. Don't hold me to it but I could have sworn I had one race where I "averaged" 320 or so.... but I blew up about 25 minutes in. To quote Robby Ventura - "you have a monster anaerobic system and you're just burning the hell out of it to stay in the race. You have the aerobic system of a child." My power file would look like something off a seismograph during an earthquake.
Point being - if Zwift used my best 20 minute performance in a race and I just happened to be using a calibrated trainer at the time then they very well could easily think my FTP was over 300. I can assure you it most definitely is not.
There's no way I could hold what Zwift calls my FTP for a full hour, hell, I remember being surprised when they said it was my 20 minute high as I didn't remember staying above that number all that long during the race (and haven't gotten within 5W of it for 20 minutes again in the 6 weeks since). But they can't just have everyone start at the bottom every Fall/Winter when they come in from racing outside or the actual newbs will get turned off and never come back (I've been told they don't come down harder on the cheaters because they think that would hurt subscriber numbers more than sandbaggers scaring off current newbs is doing).
USAC rankings work because there are a few new studs coming in all the time but the Cat 1s are already 1s (and the super strong new guys are spread out all over). With Zwift's pool of folks coming from all over the world, pretty much every race low level race would have outdoor 1s (or their equivalent) crushing it (at least for the first few years) if everyone started off with no points in a race rankings system.
Sure, there's got to be a better way to initially place people with no race history than 20 minute power, but I'm not sure what that'd be. Letting people move up OR down as their results indicate would be a big help too if that first estimate put you too high (or you got a new trainer, or took some time off, or got hurt or whatever) and I could totally see having that estimate put you 1 cat down from where most people with that power would typically race so you move up to your level faster (get some success on that first hit to get you hooked).